Vital fluids, hydraulics and computers

I find it fascinating that books are being written about the future of life or intelligence. And yet, today, we do not have a shred of understanding of how to describe life and intelligence. Not even an understanding of why we haven’t found a way to characterize life and intelligence.

This surreal situation reminds me of our ancestors, a couple of centuries ago. They were debating about the brain in terms of hydraulics. Their ancestors, even earlier, in terms of vital fluid. Or us, today in terms of computers.